News & Announcements
OSA and Physician’s Role in Weight Loss
By: Said Mostafavi, MD, FCCP, FAASM Like most sleep physicians, treating sleep-disordered breathing constitutes a large percentage of my practice. When it comes to treating obstructive sleep apnea, we thankfully have various treatment options available, some...
Why You Should Attend the Sleep Conference this Year
By: By Patrick Moday, BBA, RPSGT, RST, CCSH I started working in sleep clinical research while in college and would attend pharmaceutical conferences every 3-4 months. The meetings were about pharmaceutical medications for sleep-related conditions. There were cool...
A Brief Overview on Sleep Health and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
By: Robyn Woidtke, RN, RPSGT Why should we care about and recognize polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) in sleep health? This “very” brief overview is aimed to answer some of those questions. Additionally, an objective would be to create an interest in reaching out...
Irregular Sleep Pattern and Mood
By: Joshua Roland, MD, FAASM It is fairly intuitive that mood and sleep have a bidirectional relationship. When we sleep poorly, we are more likely to not be in our best disposition and have a compromised emotional threshold the following day. We also know anxiety,...
A Sleep Tech’s Firsthand Experience with COVID
By: Edwin M. Valladares, MS, RPSGT, Manager, USC Sleep Disorders Center COVID-19 is an elusive buggee monster until it hits home. At the beginning of 2021 I contracted COVID-19. One day I felt like my lungs were slightly inflamed, like getting dust in your lungs and...
The President’s Corner
By: Rafael Pelayo, MD, FAASM Dear California Sleep Society, I hope you are as safe and healthy as possible during this time. It has become routine for the sleep professionals in our state to see patients via Zoom and to wear full PPE when working with patients in the...
The AHI Challenge
By: Robyn Woidtke, MSN, RN, RPSGT, CCSH In 2017, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force stated that screening for sleep apnea is not recommended in symptomatic adults, including those with unrecognized symptom[1]. This is an interesting conundrum as many individuals...
The Year 2020, Social Determinants of Health Amplified: Sleep Disparities
By: Robyn Woidtke, MSN, RN, RPSGT, CCSH The country is in the midst of the worst public health crisis most of us have experienced. The health disparities which existed prior to COVID-19 have only been exacerbated by the virus. The National Institutes of Health have...
Taping Your Mouth Closed During Sleep; Is that a Good Idea?
By: William T. Hart, MD Many products are being sold over the counter and are promoted to improve sleep. Recently I have noticed peddling of misinformation and potentially ineffective therapies are common on the internet. One of these is selling mouth tape for...
Light Therapy
By: Patrick Moday, BBA, RPSGT, RST, CCSH “Light is to darkness what love is to fear; in the presence of one, the other disappears.” Marianne Williamson, A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections. Light therapy (aka phototherapy and heliotherapy) is used to...
Beyond Sleep Tracking: Leveraging Consumer Sleep Technology For Improving Population Sleep Health
By: Elie Gottlieb, PhD Consumer sleep technology is ubiquitous with the goal of empowering users to become more aware of their sleep, with some even claiming to improve healthy sleep and circadian behaviors. Initially conceived as ‘fitness trackers’ primarily limited...
Healthier Sleep May Be Coming To Florida
By: Rafael Pelayo, MD Why are you reading about Florida in a California Sleep Society newsletter? Florida is considering delaying school start times statewide like we have in our State! The California Sleep Society’s efforts in our state helped pass the first state...
From Sleep Tech to Sleep Manager
By: Alana Sherrill, CCSH, RPSGT, Supervisor, Hoag Sleep Program and Lacey Lori, RPSGT, Redlands Sleep Center Manager, Progressive Neurology and Sleep Medicine Associates It’s summer of 2022, two daytime sleep techs take a break to rest their achy scoring claws with a...
President’s Corner
By: Rafael Pelayo, MD Thank you to all of you that attended our annual meeting in Sacramento. For those of you who did not make it, you really missed a great time. Please do yourself a favor and don’t miss another one. This year was one of my favorite CSS meetings...
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM): Where Are We Today?
By: Robyn Woidtke, MSN-Ed, RN, RPSGT, CCSH, FAAST CAVEAT: I AM NOT A REIMBURSEMENT; LEGAL OR CMS EXPERT In 2021, partially in response to the Covid pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) provided an update for the use of remote and therapeutic patient...
Polysomnographic Technologist – Lead
Polysomnographic Technologist - Lead At Scripps Health, you will experience the pride, support, respect that has been repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s Top 100 Places to Work. You’ll be surrounded by people committed to making a difference in the lives of...
Polysomnographic Technologist – NIGHT
Polysomnographic Technologist - NIGHT At Scripps Health, you will experience the pride, support, respect that has been repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s Top 100 Places to Work. You’ll be surrounded by people committed to making a difference in the lives of...
Polysomnographic Technologist – Day
Polysomnographic Technologist - Day At Scripps Health, you will experience the pride, support, respect that has been repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s Top 100 Places to Work. You’ll be surrounded by people committed to making a difference in the lives of...
Mild Sleep Apnea & Excessive Sleepiness
By: Sam Kashani, MD The severity of sleep apnea is determined on a sleep study and is typically based on the number of respiratory pauses/disruptions per hour of sleep, which is generally reflected by the RDI, or respiratory disturbance index. Keeping in mind that a...
“Summer’s Here and the Time is Right for Dancing in the Street”
By: Rafael Pelayo, MD I hope all of you are in full swing enjoying the 2022 summer. It has been strange for many of us to start interacting again with each other in person. For those of us in the healthcare field, we are in a hybrid situation of keeping the strict...